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Behind The Door: The Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp Story

Creamer Media's Samantha Moolman speaks to journalists Barry Bateman and Mandy Wiener about their book Behind The Door: The Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp Story. Camera & Editing: Nicholas Boyd. 07/10/2014.

10th October 2014

By: Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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The news of successful model Reeva Steenkamp’s fatal shooting by her boyfriend and global sporting star Oscar Pistorius stunned the world. Over the ensuing weeks, as Pistorius appeared in court and applied for bail, every detail that emerged was analysed, debated, justified and digested. South Africa and the world in general were haunted by the events as they were repeated and discussed at length. Public perception vacillated from version to version and from hour to hour.

Behind the Door is a compelling narrative that unpacks the true facts of the story, as revealed in the courtroom and beyond during the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius and as told to the authors in several exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes briefings. It looks at the characters involved, relates the courtroom interactions and dramas, the construction of each side’s argument, the analysis of forensic and circumstantial evidence and exchanges between the personalities, as well as a broader look at violence and criminal justice in South Africa.

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Vivid and gripping, insightful and authoritative, Behind the Door is the book to read on the Reeva and Oscar story.

About the authors:

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Barry Bateman and Mandy Wiener are both highly respected senior reporters at Eyewitness News in Johannesburg. Their balanced coverage of the Oscar Pistorius story, both domestically and globally, has earned them much positive feedback from colleagues in the industry and members of the public alike. With the benefit of a deep understanding and appreciation of the South African legal system, they are both well established, experienced and ideally positioned to author this book.

Barry Bateman has been reporting in Pretoria, Pistorius's hometown, for the past decade – first at the Pretoria News, the capital’s daily newspaper, and then for the last three years as the Pretoria Correspondent for Eyewitness News.

Bateman was amongst the first journalists on the scene of the shooting and has been covering every development since. His spectacular explosion of Twitter followers in the days subsequent to the event is indicative of his ownership of the story. In just a few days, his followers skyrocketed from around 8 000 to 140 000 (a growth rate of 787%) as he established himself as an objective, informative, authoritative voice on the topic. From inside the courtroom, Bateman live-tweeted proceedings as he racked up followers. According to strategic communication agency Cerebra, Bateman was mentioned a total of 128 681 times on the topic of Oscar Pistorius, which accounts for 22% of the global conversation around the case.

Bateman’s unbiased and informed accounts resonated with followers who were battling to understand the legal processes and distill truth from sensationalism and false reporting.

As a Pretoria-based correspondent, Bateman has built a credible reputation in the city. He received a special mention in the Taco Kuiper Investigative Journalism Awards for his work in 2011 on the Tshwane Metro Police Deputy Chief Ndumiso Jaca. The senior traffic officer is currently facing criminal prosecution and has been suspended for driving an unregistered car with false number plates. Bateman was awarded the National Press Club Journalist of the Year accolade for that investigation.

He has also worked closely with the prosecuting team in the Oscar Pistorius case before. It is the same team handling the murder of young mother Chanelle Henning, a story Bateman broke at the end of 2011.

Mandy Wiener is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist and author who has been reporting on crime, the courts and politics in South Africa for the past decade.

Wiener’s ground breaking Twitter reportage of the Brett Kebble murder trial and the corruption trial of erstwhile Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi earned her widespread acclaim. It resulted in the best-selling book Killing Kebble: An Underworld Exposed which is a South African publishing phenomenon. To date, the ‘gritty, true-crime tale’ has sold nearly 80 000 copies and is in its sixth print run in two years. Its first print run of 10 000 sold out in four days. In 2012, Killing Kebble was shortlisted for the prestigious Sunday Times Alan Paton Award for non-fiction, the Nielsen Booksellers Choice Award, the SALA Creative Non-Fiction Literary Award and was the recipient of Jenny Crwys-William’s Book of the Year for 2011. Numerous requests
for film rights for the work have been received.

Wiener’s second book, written with former National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Vusi Pikoli, was also shortlisted for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award and the Nielsen Booksellers Choice Award. My Second Initiation – The memoir of Vusi Pikoli was selected as Jenny Crwys-William’s non-fiction Book of the Year for 2013.

Over the past few years, Wiener has placed a special focus on investigating the police service and prosecuting authority in the country and has written several feature length articles on these subjects.

Wiener is also the Series Editor of The Youngsters, a series of pocket books by young South African voices worth listening to.

As a radio reporter, Wiener has broken numerous high-profile stories that have won her awards. She was chosen as the CNN African Radio Journalist of the Year in 2007, has won a number of National and Regional Vodacom Journalist of the Year awards, and has received several commendations in the Webber Wentzel Legal Journalist of the Year awards over the past few years. She was named as the Women in the Media Rising Star for 2011. She has scooped the National Press Club award in the Radio Category and Social Media category. She has in excess of 100 000 followers on Twitter and has regularly been named as one of the country’s most influential tweeters. Wiener was also named as one of O Magazine’s ‘Most Powerful Women in Africa’ in 2014.

Wiener has been reporting on the developments surrounding Oscar Pistorius since they broke on the morning of Valentine’s Day. She filed hourly live radio reports and was live tweeting events from the courthouse for the duration of the bail application. Wiener provided analysis and insight via Google Hangouts and on the Daily Maverick website.

Bateman and Wiener, together with colleague Alex Eliseev, are part of the Eyewitness News team that broke the international exclusive report about Investigating Officer Hilton Botha facing charges of attempted murder. That exposé led to his being taken off the case. Together, they are ideally placed to co-author Behind The Door – The Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp story.

Behind the Door is published by Pan Macmillan South Africa

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